The teacher becomes the learner: Student engagement

Continuing my intentional path to explore what I can learn to become a better teacher in a remote synchronous online learning environment, here's part 4. I am participating in a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) sponsored by the Division of Online and Strategic Learning of Ball State University. I will periodically post my reflections in this blog to document my progress, and to serve as a resource for a future me, as I come back to review these posts. Perhaps there will be something of use for other readers that aren't me.

Module 4: Student engagement

This module focused on student engagement. The following notes summarize what I gleaned from the module.

General observations...

• Having a template for a variety of class formats can be helpful.
• There are lots of things that can be done to engage students online. One resource is Iowa State University's extensive page of tips. Another is University of Massachusetts' page of tips.
  

Small group engagement... 

From Improving Student Collaboration in Remote and Hybrid Learning 

• Ensure individual accountability
• Empower teams to...
• Set norms and expectations
• Own the project management process
• Own the communication process
• Empowered teams still need check-ins

Large group engagement... 

From 8 Strategies to Improve Participation in Your Virtual Classroom

• Spider web discussion (I've read a short book about this, but never implemented it. Maybe I should.)
• Using chat to check for understanding (Short response or emoji response.)
• Flip your classroom to stimulate deeper discussion (I've been using flipped learning for years!)
• Think-pair-share to Zoom (I've been doing this; works well.)
• Show-and-tell (Write/share about your response to something shown.)
• Online forums create back-and-forth dialogues (I've done this a bit using Canvas' discussion board feature, but also have used a Google document, as well.)
• Seeing and critiquing peer work through virtual gallery walks (I've had teams share comments in a Google document after reviewing another team's programming code posted in GitHub. Generally has worked well, if I set expectations about how to do the review.)
• Station brainstorming (This one is new to me. I need to investigate a bit more.)

Summary

Student engagement approaches I've used in a physical classroom which have translated well to remote synchronous learning include think-pair-share, small group discussions, flipped learning, peer review, staying after class to answer questions, and soliciting mid-semester course feedback.

The biggest challenge I've experienced is being able to "read the room." I do not require learners to leave their video on (for a variety of reasons), and thus am not able to see their facial expressions and body language. A very few students do leave their video on, and I depend heavily on them, hoping they are representative of the whole.

 

On the positive side, I'm discovered a few activities which work better in the remote synchronous modality! The ability to create small groups randomly by using Zoom breakout rooms is much easier than trying to get learners to create small discussion groups with others they do not know in a physical classroom. Displaying a fun prompt (during the class gathering time) to which the learners respond in the Zoom chat window has been a great way to get to know learners, build class community, and get learners to informally communicate with each other. Being able to conduct office hours away from my office, with the ability to screen-share has been much more effective that sending a series of email messages.

Over all, my face-to-face student engagement approaches have translated well to remote synchronous learning, with a few struggles and pleasant surprises along the way. I am thankful I've been using a learner-centered approach for years; it made the transition much easier and more effective.